Several articles about biblical interpretation appear in the archived pages of Gospel Gazette Online. Following are some links for a few of those pages.
In addition, in the free digital biblical library on Gospel Gazette Online are several books as PDF files. One of those books is about biblical interpretation, which you may read by selecting the following link.
Biblical interpretation involves three different ways of communicating the will of God to man: direct command, approved example and implication (from which we are obligated to infer only what is implied in Scripture without taking from or adding to it). These are the same three ways by which people communicate with each other, too.
Sometimes people attempt to disallow approved examples and divine implication in the Bible, supposing that only direct commands equal biblical authority. That is a serious error because it carelessly disregards divine instruction from God to mankind. For instance, without accepting implication from which man must infer what is implied in Scripture, not even direct commands found in the Bible would apply to anyone today, since no Scripture in the Bible was specifically written to anyone now living. For even a direct command to apply to anyone today, one must first see a biblical implication from which he correctly infers that the command not only applied to those to whom it was originally given, but that the same command also applies to people living today. Commands cannot apply today unless one accepts that biblical implication is authoritative.
Likewise, approved examples teach the will of God. Acts 20:7 is a prime example of biblical authority through an approved example. The apostle Paul (whose worship appears in Acts 20:7) as well as the inspired writing by Luke (who wrote the Book of Acts) show the approved example of observing the Lord’s Supper on the first day of the week—Sunday on our calendars. Since there are no other New Testament Scriptures that show that the Lord’s Supper was observed by the first century—apostle-guided-church, the Lord’s Supper is only authorized by Scripture for observance on the first day of the week. However, observing the Lord’s Supper in an “upper room,” which appears in Acts 20:8, is not required because additional passages of Scripture indicate that worship was not always in an upper room (Acts 12:12). Instead, Scripture shows that the Lord’s Supper and other acts of worship were to be observed in a “place” (1 Corinthians 11:20; Acts 15:30) without reference to an upper room.
As long as one is interested in having Bible authority for practicing Christianity, he will appreciate the aspects of biblical interpretation, which include: direct command, approved example and divine implication. These three ways of communicating are standard for language communication, not only between God and man, but also between humans. The significance of biblical interpretation has to do with the message originating with God and God’s message itself.
